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In Aristotle's Poetics, Horace's Ars Poetica and William Wordsworth's ZKÜ Sosyal Bilimler Dergis, Cilt 2, Sayı 4, 2006, ss. 211–219. THE IDEA OF “DELIGHT AND INSTRUCT” IN ARISTOTLE’S POETICS, HORACE’S ARS POETICA AND WILLIAM WORDSWORTH’S PREFACE TO LYRICAL BALLADS Arş. Grv. Selin MARANGOZ ÇIPLAK Zonguldak Karaelmas University Faculty of Arts and Sciences Department of Western Languages and Literatures [email protected] ABSTRACT Literature has emerged from man’s need of expressing himself and interpreting life. Historically speaking, writers have considered literature from different points of view and tried to define its goals and the ways by which it has to be constructed. This study points out how Aristotle, Horace and William Wordsworth, three literary figures living in different periods of time, have interpreted literature or poetry as a “representation” medium in terms of satisfying man’s needs, shaping and enlarging his moral vision. The idea of literature either as a craftsmanship or outburst of feelings is but a vehicle for both “delighting and instructing” man and this is not only what they have asserted but also what they have practiced as the main rule for their own literary creation. Keywords: Mimesis,Creation Process, Human Nature, Please, Instruct. ARISTOTLE’IN POETICS, HORACE’IN ARS POETICA VE WILLIAM WORDSWORTH’ÜN PREFACE TO LYRICAL BALLADS ADLI ESERLERİNDE “EĞLENDİRME VE EĞİTME” ÖZET Edebiyat, insanın kendini ifade etme ve yaşamı yorumlama ihtiyacından doğmuştur. Tarihsel yönden bakıldığında, yazarlar edebiyatı farklı açılardan düşünmüş, edebiyatın amaçlarını ve yapılandırma yollarını tanımlamaya çalışmıştır. Bu çalışma, farklı dönemlerde yaşamış üç sanatçının; Aristotle, Horace ve William Wordsworth’ün “gösterme” ölçütü olarak edebiyatın ya da şiirin insanın ihtiyaçlarına cevap vermesi, ahlaki bakışını şekillendirmesi ve genişletmesi konularını nasıl yorumladıklarını ortaya koymaktadır. Sanatkârlık ya da duyguların dışa vurumu olarak edebiyatın, insanı “eğlendiren ve eğiten” bir araç olması, bu sanatçıların yalnızca savundukları düşünce değil aynı zamanda kendi edebi eserlerini yaratmada uyguladıkları başlıca kuraldır. Anahtar Kelimeler: Taklit, Yaratma Süreci, İnsan Doğası, Eğlendirme, Eğitme. 212 Selin MARANGOZ ÇIPLAK 1. INTRODUCTION Throughout literary history, literature aimed at “mimesis”; the representation of life, nature or reality through literary works using various devices, genres, rhetoric, diction, and decorum. Writers tried either to please their readers or instruct them through representation or they aimed at achieving both. Aristotle, preferring tragedy as an imitation of man “in action” to epic, states that man can improve himself through representation, as human beings are naturally delighted with representation in general. Horace clearly defines the “delight and instruct” rule whereas with William Wordsworth, “the instruction” part of the rule has vanished. However, the idea of instruction seems to be covertly present with Wordsworth as long as the reader responds to the representation with his moral, emotional and rational sympathies. Therefore Aristotle, Horace and Wordsworth have literally met face to face in terms of affective theory that deals with the readers’ psychological responses, emotions, literary tastes and moral understanding. This study not only explores that these three literary figures, writing in different periods, have expressed the idea of “delight and instruct” in their literary works in some way or another and have explained it in their authentic poetic theories, but also discusses why they have insisted on the importance of “delight and instruct” rule in creation process. 2. “PLEASURE” THROUGH “THE SOUL OF TRAGEDY” AND CATHARSIS In his Poetics, which was written in 330 B.C. as Vincent B. Leitch has noted (2001: 117), Aristotle explains how representation in the art of poetry can be both pleasing and instructive at the same time: Two causes seem to have been generated the art of poetry as a whole, and these are natural ones. Representation is natural to human beings from childhood. They differ from the other animals in this: man tends most towards representation and learns his first lessons through representation. Also everyone delights in looking at the most detailed images of things which in themselves we see with pain, e.g. the shapes of the most despised wild animals even when dead. The cause of this is that learning is most pleasant, not only for philosophers but for others likewise. ... For this reason they delight in seeing images, because it comes about that they learn as they observe, and infer what each thing is, e.g. that this person [represents] that one. For if one has not seen the thing [that is presented] before, [its image] will not produce a pleasure as a representation, but because of its accomplishment, colour, or some other such cause (93)7. Therefore by nature, human beings are interested in representation, and through art they are delighted and instructed by what is presented in front of them. Stressing the difference between the epic and the dramatic, Aristotle regards comedy and tragedy as the best of the poetic kinds because they are “greater and more honourable in 7 All subsequent references to the primary texts given in parentheses are taken from The Norton Anthol- ogy of Theory and Criticism, noted in reference section. Aristotle (2001); “Poetics”, in The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism, gen. ed. Vincent B. Leitch, W. W. Norton & Company Inc., New York, pp. 90-117. ZKÜ Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, Cilt 2, Sayı 4, 2006. 213 their forms”. Subordinating comedy to tragedy, he defines the rules for writing tragedy in a formalist way. However, an implicit emphasis that is put on the emotional aspect of a tragic play is found in his definition of “tragedy”: “Tragedy is a representation of a serious, complete action which has magnitude, in embellished speech, with each of its elements [used] separately in the [various] parts [of the play]; [represented] by peo- ple acting and not by narration; accomplishing by means of pity and terror the catharsis of such emotions” (95). Thus, tragedy can be helpful in purifying the feelings of pity and terror [that is, catharsis], when the audience has seen what has happened to the tragic hero, a man “who neither is superior [to us] in virtue and justice, nor un- dergoes a change to misfortune because of vice and wickedness, but because of some error, and who is one of those people with a great reputation and a good fortune” (100). From the audience’s point of view, the pleasure of what is represented on the stage comes through experiencing the feeling of pity and terror with the tragic hero and a kind of relief that such a misfortune has not fallen on them. The hero is important in terms of producing pity and fear in the audience because if he is a wicked man passing from misfortune to good fortune, this will be “neither morally satisfying nor pitiable nor terrifying (100). “Since the poet should use representation to produce the pleasure [arising from pity and terror]” (101), the pleasure that comes from tragedy is mostly dependent on “the structure of the incidents”; the plot “the soul of tragedy” (96), “in accordance with probability or necessity” (97); “This is superior and belongs to a better poet. For the plot should be constructed in such a way that, even without seeing it, someone who hears about the incidents will shudder and feel pity at the outcome. ... Since the poet should use representation to produce the pleasure [arising] from pity and terror, it is obvious that this must be put into the incidents” (101). The poet “should put what is amazing into his tragedies. … What is amazing is pleasant” (113). Departing from Plato who censored poetic pleasure in his reasonable vision, Aristotle makes use of “pleasure” through catharsis, which exists with the goal of instructing. Although he does not discuss the moral effect of drama explicitly, he seems to point out that the moral effect is a part of dramatic structure, not a result of mere imitation of a moral action. Pleasure is a special insight that begins with the “complex” plot of tragedy and comes to an end with the purgation of the feeling of pity and fear. It seems to be paradoxical at first sight and one may ask how a man is pleased and instructed through the purgation of pity and terror. The fact of purgation of such feelings is directly related with the idea of gaining a new perspective psychologically. Pity, terror, suffering and misfortune lead the audience to feel pity for the others while they are terrorized with the truth that this misfortune might have fallen on them. These feelings and insights, which are personal, come to the surface of consciousness with the aid of pleasure. Therefore, catharsis is important in the sense that one experiences a moment that enlightens him emotionally. Considering “catharsis” as a key word, an emphasis is put on the union of emotional purgation and intellectual clarification, which comes to the foreground with the action of a tragic play. As stated before, the idea of pleasure appears together with the idea of instruct- ing in Poetics. Being both “philosophical” and “serious”, “poetry tends to speak of universals. ... A universal is the sort of things that a certain kind of person may 214 Selin MARANGOZ ÇIPLAK well say or do in accordance with probability or necessity - this is what poetry aims at… a poet must be a composer of plots… (he) represents actions ... that have hap- pened from being the sort of things that may happen according to probability, e.g. that are possible” (98) and “[the poet] might investigate what is universal” (105). If poetry is the composition of a highly unified plot as “what is more concentrated is more pleasurable” (117), and purposeful events imitating the universals with regard to the prob- ability and necessity rule, then it must instruct people about the realities and truths of life.
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